Grange Park or George Spicer in Enfield BUT

[Sanj2017]

Hello All,
I was wondering if someone can shed some light on the following situation.
We are about to move to Enfield (if house sale\buying all goes as planned!)
We have a list of schools from the Enfield admission service as what schools we can apply to

Grange Park
George Spicer
Raglan
Edmonton County
Bush Hill Park
Starks Field

top of our list are Grange Park and George Spicer, we favour Grange Park as there are some very good academic results

BUT

parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/parent-view-results/survey/result/1549/current
parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/parent-view-results/survey/result/1530/current

Parents Views website indicates parents not too satisfied with the school, the number of responses is small, so it may not tell the full story.
Does anyone have any further info on this, or generally any thoughts which of the 2 schools (or others on the list) would be a better choice for our 4 year old daughter (applying for next year)?

Many regards
Sanj

I had a friend who taught at Grange Park Primary - she left recently after several years there - couldn’t stand it any more. I’m not sure exactly what has happened but I know the longstanding head left which has caused a lot of changes, and the school has now expanded to 4 forms of entry which is just so very big for a primary school.
George Spicer is a much happier school, I think, though not nearly as “middle class”. As for the results, many of the kids at Grange Park will be pushed (and tutored?) at home, which may account for the better SATS results.
Whereabouts in Enfield are you hoping to move to?

Hi Enfieldlady
we are hopefully moving to near top of Old Park Avenue opposite end of the town.
we have been told to go by the Ofstead results and talk to the school, and make a visit to make our own mind, and i think that is what we really need to do. But happiness of out daughter is also important as well as the good school results, so its a hard dilemma.
regards

From your list, most of your new neighbours would pick Grange Park I would imagine...but that doesn’t necessarily make it the right school for you.
Also, while the location of your new home is not particularly strong for primary admission zones, do consider other options - you have six choices on the form so it’s worth a wildcard or two. What about Chase Side Primary which you could at least walk to? No guarantee you’d get in I know, but if you put it down you would at least be on a waiting list / able to appeal. Also do look to see how far out of catchment you are for the likes of Merryhills and Eversley which both seem to have overtaken Grange Park in the desirability stakes in recent years.
I don’t think any of the schools are awful but Enfield is a very split borough and the more middle class parents can be quite snobby about schools.
Good luck. It’s agonising isn’t it?

Grange Park and George Spicer are both 4 form entry now.
George Spicer is split site infant & juniors (not sure about Grange Park) which means the infant site is brand new, all opening onto playgrounds specific to each year group. The head has been there for ages. Quite a few long established teachers but also a fair amount of turnover and nqts (school still growing to capacity so need to recruit).
It's a mixed demographic, fairly high free school meals, special needs, esl kids. It's very inclusive.
Brilliant school run breakfast & after school clubs (run by & staffed by TA's, lunchtime assistants), parents car park (avoid driving down sketty road!).
I have dc there & am really happy with it.

Chase Side has a tiny catchment area.

Bush Hill Park is the one the parents of kids at George Spicer are relieved not to send their kids to - but that may just be snobbery.

Edmonton County I know someone who teaches there - does going to the primary offer anything for getting into secondary there? May seem a while off but could be something to consider. I know of lots of people who are doing this for Ashmole in Southgate...

I have heard only old things about George Spicer andy kids will be going there next year.

I like that it's mixed and less straight up middle class.ote imports than test results at primary age.

OK so we rang Grange Park admin and questioned some of the issues raised in the survey i.e. Bullying and general parent dissatisfaction. They said they have good policies in place to combat those kind of issues. They had not heard of the Parent View survey but said just come to the open days (Thursday) and see for your self. Which we will do next week..
George Spicer - must admit Im getting a lot of good feedback for this school - will also be attending a open day. Maybe our 1st choice.

need to apply to six schools. 3 on the list would be
George Spicer
Grange Park
Raglan

Wildcards - rang a few - they said we can apply but at the end of the day all depends on places...they are all oversubscribed but i just couldn't\wouldn't want to apply the the other 3 on our original list...
Merryhills Primary School
Eversley Primary School
Chase Side Primary School
Highfield Primary School

regards

I'd pay attention to location Sanj as Enfield can be grid locked at rush hour. Being able to walk to and from school would be worth a lot in my book.
We are lucky here that most or all of our schools are ok.
And those that aren't ok probably will be by the time your DC is mid way through primary and those that are excellent now will possibly be not quite so good in 5 years time.
good luck with the move.

Agree with PP. Walking to school is 100% is the way forward in these parts.

Hard question. It depends on so much. My DS was in George Spicer and thrived. Was a slow reader and got help and excelled. Then in Y5 we moved homes and he went to Raglan. Looking back on the circumstances, it was a bad idea.

Raglan was, at the time, transitioning, didn't have a permanent head yet and didn't know who it was stylistically.

My DD is there now and every year there seems to be new teachers coming in and leaving. Her Y4 teacher was amazing and she thrived and made so much improvement. She has a memory problem and it takes time for her to remember things, so her achievements are very slow. The headteacher is permanent and is trying lots of different ideas. We recently got a Breakfast and afterschool Club that is run by the school (called wrap club). So far I''ve been getting rave reviews from my daughter and other parents. Whether the teachers enjoy it I don't know. As a parent it is extremely convenient. Until she can walk home by herself.

I've grown to love it, they're very performance arty, but preferred George Spicer as it had a variety of type of persons attending. It's fair to say the demographic of Raglan is less varied.

Bush Hill Park had a little trouble a few years back with bullying. It was quite serious and one of the things parents were worried would happen to when the expanded form entry that George Spicer had to introduce.

The thing is things change year after year and these stories are from the last 7 years and so much has happened in those 7 years, it's hard to give anything other than my feels on the subject.